I'm more "Cyber Monday" than "Black Friday," and in case you are too, here's a cautionary tale. That shirt above? Its by Gitman Vintage, made from deadstock japanese indigo-dyed cloth, and as such, a limited release. I like it. I was going to order it from Unionmade in San Francisco, but they didn't have my size. I emailed to ask if they were expecting more, and they replied right back, sorry that they were not.

I found it at Barneys and I've ordered it twice. I've gotten a confirmation email, and then sometime after the expected delivery date I've received an email saying my order was cancelled. The first said there was a problem with my card (I checked, there's not). The second said they couldn't verify my shipping address (which I did enter correctly per the screen shot I printed). Customer Service has done nothing other than tell me "It's been picked, it just hasn't been shipped yet, you'll get an email when its on the way."

I tried it one last time last night. I used my debit card rather than AMEX, and had it shipped to the house rather than my office so the billing and delivery addresses were the same. Cross your fingers for me.

***UPDATE***My card has been charged, apparently 3rd time is the charm.

And we're back from Aruba. Eight days of this. (Seriously, every picture I took was from a beach chair).Even the one I posted on the Facebook to wish everyone a happy halloween.

My thoughts? The weather is perfect. Its nearly always around 80 degrees with a constant breeze. And I'm not at all surprised that Eagle Beach (where our hotel was) consistently makes the list of top 10 beaches. White sand like sugar, clear turquoise water that's refreshing but not too cold, and seemingly never crowded. The occasional beefy boy in board shorts doesn't hurt either.

We liked the island. We didn't really do much with our days other than enjoy the beach, and that was fine (and super relaxing). Take sunscreen, the rays are strong. In the evenings we headed down to the high rise resort area. The local bus is easy and cheap, and if you don't want to do that cabs are everywhere. The casinos at the resorts are small but the blackjack tables were generally good to us. And while we're a bit old for it, there are lots of clubs for all the drinking and dancing you can stand.

We did take an excursion to an all-inclusive recreational island one day but it was pretty bad, so I won't even bother to tell you about it. The only other issue we had was the food. Expensive across the board and generally not very good. We had a kitchenette in our room and every intention of stopping at the grocery store for breakfast and lunch supplies, but it was easier to stay in our loungers and let Lucy bring us burgers and beers from the beach bar. We'll do it differently next time.

Very much geared toward Americans, English is spoken everywhere and your dollars are just fine, although part of your change may include Aruban coins. All in all a very easy trip to take, and I'd totally go back.